Tag Archives: Iqbal Wahhab

Reducing crime though work

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Yesterday I hosted an event at Roast for a number of ex-offenders. They ranged in age from 16 to 50 but they all had one thing in common they were determined not end up back in prison. A staggering 70% of released prisoners end up back inside primarily because they can’t find a home or a job. I found out later that one of them had slept rough the night before in this freezing weather. With very little in the way of support mechanisms, you can see why that re-offending rate is so high.

The guys I met had all worked in the kitchens of their former prisons and whether they were dishwashers or cooks, they all had skills that people like me are always on the look-out for. Unfortunately the prison services hadn’t sold it to them that way, it was a chore that they had to do. Instead, if the period they spent in the kitchens was seen as a skills-based learning process with NVQ qualifications added in, they would have seen this as a route to a job when released.

When I first visited Wormwood Scrubs last April and spent some time in their kitchens, I met a prisoner who was cooking 200 meals a day and when I asked him what he planned to do when released he said he had no idea. It had never occurred to him that restaurants would take him on and when I offered him a work placement at Roast, a light went on inside him. I’m hoping to get Wormwood Scrubs to pilot a training programme for inmates to learn skills like butchery and baking as these are dying crafts in the catering world.

I took the ex-offenders around Borough Market and it was a revelation for them to see a real tuna, partridges, pheasants, rabbits and geese hanging with all their plumes. They then got to see how our kitchen operates and were shown around by one of our chefs, himself an ex-offender, who told it to them straight: ‘If we offer any of you a job, don’t mess it up. Not many people would give you a chance like that.’

Unfortunately that’s true most employers wouldn’t have given these guys the time of day. But I’m hoping to start a programme to take on some of them on work placements to start with and see how we go. This isn’t just about being nice to people who might have no other opportunities in our industry we are often looking for skilled workers. In future, prisons may have an active role to play in the growth of the hospitality sector.

The Prince and Scotch eggs

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I had the privilege today to attend a gathering of Business in the Community, a Prince of Wales charity whereby businesses are encouraged to do more than narrowly focus on profit and recognise their place in the social contexts in which we are based.

Last April I led what is called a ‘Seeing is Believing’ tour with heads of different companies and organisations to look at the rehabilitation of ex-offenders and in particular why it is that 12% of the entire prison population in the UK is Muslim, while Muslims constitute just 3% of the national profile.

As I was one of the speakers at today’s event, I got to meet with the prince and he’s so well briefed and manages his memory so well that although I have met him previously there is no way he would remember me. Today he asked me now just how the restaurant business is faring but amazingly, he asked about the scotch eggs we had put on the menu and what we put in them that make them so special!

Duties & Obligations

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The days when businesspeople just ran their business with the sole intention of making profit are slowly coming to an end. We understand now that we have duties and obligations above and beyond maximising shareholder value in the old model. One thing I’ve realised recently is that helping those less fortunate than you is actually good for business.

I’ll give you two examples of how I came to this conclusion. I sit on the board of the London Development Agency’s Business Leaders Advisory Group where we look at how to encourage employers to undertake greater measures to improve the diversity of their workforces. One of the things the programme offers is an online ‘diagnostic tool’ to see how well your company performs on this front and how you can improve in  fact if you do well, you can apply for a Gold Standard. Roast is applying for this.

Sceptics ask: why create further HR issues for managers to have to deal with? This isn’t just about being nice or fair it’s also beneficial to the bottom line. In America this already happens: companies that have gold standard style accreditation want to spend their money with other companies that are similarly minded. It won’t be long before we find that by helping correct inequalities that the labour market unfettered can’t deal with, we are actually seeing commercial benefit too.

A second example of this has come through my becoming a trustee of the Mayor’s Fund for London. I’ve hosted a couple of breakfast events at Roast for this project one of which Boris Johnson spoke at and at the second it was Barclays boss Bob Diamond. OK, we lost out on the taking for those days’ breakfast revenues, but the crowd we attracted to these events were City heavy hitters who now in turn use Roast as a venue for their own businesses.

So, by helping others, we can help ourselves in the process. Enlightened self-interest: the best form.